Review of Navigation and Positioning of Deep-sea Manned Submersibles

Abstract

Operational deep-sea manned submersibles are important underwater vehicles that provide strong technical support for international deep-sea research. Navigation and positioning technologies are expected to facilitate the complete exploitation of the scientific value of samples and data collected by such submersibles, improve their underwater operation efficiency and enhance their safety. This paper first briefly describes six operational deep-sea manned submersibles that can dive to depths of more than 4,500 m. Then, the paper focuses on the navigation and positioning technologies used in these submersibles. Finally, considering the existing problems in the navigation and positioning systems of China's manned submersible Jiaolong, the paper discusses future development trends of the navigation and positioning technologies used in operational deep-sea manned submersibles.

Long Baseline Underwater Acoustic Location Technology

“…Single transponders work in short baseline mode; when working in long baseline mode, at least three transponders are required on the seafloor, typically four to six transponders; multiuser long baseline mode is available The same beacon array provides positioning for multiple users including ships, ROVs, etc., in the area. Sonardyne has developed a series of long baseline positioning systems, such as the Prospector series, Dunker6 series, Fusion 6G series, and ROVNav series (Zhang et al 2019). The sixth generation of broadband signal technology claims to provide an unlimited number of users within its system coverage (Sun and Zheng 2015).…”

Visual/inertial odometry with tight coupling of multi-bit pose information

“…Both ethzasl_ssf and ethzasl_msf proposed by Weiss are excellent open-source algorithms in filterbased loose coupling, and the computational complexity of the loosely coupled method is much lower compared to the tightly coupled method [6]. However, as optimization-based loosely coupled methods are not ideal [7], classical tightly coupled frameworks are Ethz_ASL's OKVIS (open keyframe-based visual-inertial SLAM), OKVIS is a keyframe-optimized VIO that puts together the secondary projection error of the image and the error term of the IMU for optimization and trajectory estimation [8].…”

Long-term corrosion behaviour of 1060 aluminium in deep-sea environment of South China Sea

“…As the development of oil, gas and mineral resources is gradually moving towards the deep sea, the corrosion of metallic structures in deep-sea water becomes a growing concern [1]. The deep-water equipment and facilities such as the deep-sea manned submersibles [2], the underwater robots [3,4], the deep-sea drilling units and subsea production systems [5] are developed rapidly. High-performance materials are the foundation for the development and construction of deep-sea equipment and facilities [6,7].…”